ThunderCats in its entirety © Warner Bros.


Summary: WilyKit plays matchmaker. WilyKat does not approve. Takes place between chapters eight and nine of "The Rebels."


Nothing grosses me out more than kissing.

Seriously, it's disgusting. From everything I've observed, kissing is like trying to eat someone else's face, complete with smacky noises, like no one taught them to chew with their mouths closed. Can't it be quieter, at least? And Cheetara and Tygra are always doing it. No matter where I want to walk, there they are, blocking the way. Like right now.

I pull up short. Tygra promised he'd flay me alive if I spy on them one more time. As if anyone would want to! If it was possible to pop out my eyeballs and put them in my belt pouches I would. Is it my fault that watching them swap spit triggers a perfectly natural desire in me to puke?

I hesitate, weighing my options. The quickest way to the food is through Cheetara and Tygra. Otherwise, I have to go the long way, right past Mother Hen Felline. Which I don't want to do, because it's nowhere near lunchtime and she won't let me touch the supplies. Rationing, she says. I cross my arms. Who put her in charge, anyway? Not Lion-O; he's always as hungry as I am. But, of course, that old grouch Panthro will take her side. He always does.

Come to think of it, I can't go that way, either. Panthro's out for my skin too because of that nonsense with the incontinent froog me and my sister tried to nurse back to health. In hindsight, choosing his bunk to house the messy little croaker probably wasn't the wisest move, but we figured his blankets smelled the worst anyway. . . .

I decide I can go this way, revulsion making my eyes cross as Tygra moves on to licking Cheetara's jaw. Does that taste good, or something? Tentatively, I sneak a lick of my wrist, but it just tastes like it always does. Grownups are weird. They're so absorbed in each other they'll never notice if I climb up the side of the ThunderTank – but Tygra's growling possessively into Cheetara's throat, and I have to swallow what's sure to be a loud and damning retch. I can't let them hear me. I can already feel the sting of a whip on my backside.

Aw, forget it. It's not like I'm hungry, anyway.

I turn on my heel, paws clasped behind my head. I stroll away in case they come up for air. I don't care. I'm . . . bored. Yeah, that's it. There's nothing to do, so I –

My stomach gives a huge rumble.

"Uhn," I whimper, staggering sideways. Strength . . . fading. . . . Sight . . . dimming. . . .

"Hey, Kat," Kit says, cropping up next to me like a goofer out of its hole.

"Sis?" I ask weakly, squinting at her. "Is that you? I think . . . this is it for me." I slump to the ground, eyes closed. I'm not breathing.

She squats next to me. Pokes me in the head as if to test my deadness level. "Too bad. I brought food."

"Oh!" I immediately sit up, grinning, and flick my tail. "Why didn't you say so?"

"Here." She tosses me a bone. There's even still meat on it.

I ravenously sink my teeth into it. Kit's face is greasy; I suspect she helped herself to more than her fair share, but since she did risk Felline's scolding to bring me some and doesn't know about my candyfruit stash, I can let it slide this once.

Neither of us says it. We don't have to. Together, we scamper up the nearest tree with our booty. It's one of the white maples that make up the forest at the base of the snowy mountain range to the north. Summer is over, and it's getting colder. We settle on a branch, concealed behind clumps of large, autumn-red leaves.

I sit back, gnawing on a particularly juicy bit, while Kit sucks on hers, perched at the edge of the branch. She's watching Panthro and Felline sort through their endless boxes of machine parts and tools, arguing about fixing something or other.

Kit pulls the bone out of her mouth with a slurp. She licks her fingers and her lips, and then speaks.

"I think Panthro likes Felline."

"Huh?" I cast an indifferent glance at the ground. Panthro paws through a box while Felline tries to reach a panel above her head, but she's too short. "Of course he does. She's the only one he lets touch his precious Tank, isn't she?"

"That's not what I meant," Kit says, turning to me with a sly grin. Her tail waves back and forth the way it always does when she's feeling playful. "I mean likes her likes her."

I gape at her. "Are you crazy? He's, like, fifty years old! Isn't that, you know, too old for k – ki – that kind of . . . stuff?" I can't say it because I can feel the bile rising at the thought.

"You can be such a toad," Kit sniffs, shooting me a condemning stare through narrowed eyes. As if she's so much more mature than I am, when she's the one who still needs me to walk with her so she can do her business at night. "Age doesn't matter in love!"

"Yeah, but . . ." Queasy, I look down again. Panthro picks Felline off her feet and sets her on his shoulder. She laughs at him and sets to work, her goggle lenses as red as the maple leaves, her tail swishing across his broad back. His expression is as grumpy as ever. Now, if Tygra had Cheetara sitting on his shoulder, he'd be all googly-eyed and rubbing his cheek into her leg. Maybe drooling. "You're imagining things, Sis."

"Oh, am I?" she croons, and I know I'm in for it.

I try to run, but she pounces, sinking her claws into my leggings and pulling my feet out from under me. I nearly drop my bone, and when I grab at it, she takes the opportunity to sit on me, pinning me to the branch.

..::~*~::..

The problem was that he was surround by kids.

Panthro sighed. He crouched next to the toolbox and plunged his paws in, digging around for the samoflange and a pair of gorzas. It wasn't like he could find them by feel anymore. If he wasn't careful, he could wind up breaking something irreplaceable.

But his mind wasn't on the samoflange. It was on the ThunderCats. Yup. All of 'em. Snot-nosed kids. Not one had a clue. Here they were, blindly following incomprehensible directions to the next Power Stone, Mumm-Ra on their collective tail, and that fool of a prince and cleric weren't applying themselves to the solution. He sighed again, but it came out closer to a growl. Lion-O was just as bad. He'd been twisted into knots over the whole Cheetara thing for a while, which messed with his decision-making capabilities. This was why no one in their right minds put toms at his age in charge of a damn thing. And Felline! What an unpleasant surprise to catch her mooning over Lion-O. He'd thought her more level-headed than that. Of course, they'd all thought Lion-O was dead at the time . . .

A tap on his shoulder made him look up. "Red box. Next to the purrank and toska in the removable tray. I haven't gotten around to sorting that one yet," Felline said, gesturing at his box.

"Thanks," he muttered, unable to erase his scowl. He'd never been great at organization, and felt bad every time he saw her working late into the night, carefully finding new homes for all of their spare parts and tools so she wouldn't have to do it on the fly. He opened the correct box. "How did you know what I wanted?"

She shrugged, smiling. "Educated guess."

There was a smudge of grease across her forehead, covering up one of her eyebrows. Combined with her big, round, blue eyes, it gave her a look of great surprise, but she fitted a new drill bit, pulled down her goggles, and went back to work with a surety that surprised him. She was so tiny, but she never let that stop her. She braced her feet, black-clad legs taut, and with quick pulls of the trigger, removed all the screws, letting them drop into her palm before tossing them aside with impressive accuracy. One ear was tilted to catch the sound of the screws hitting the tin cup on the ground, the other forward, listening for any problems. Her small face was serious, and a lock of white hair had come loose, waving down her back.

Maybe she did have a thing for the kid, but she wasn't letting that stop her, either. At last, here was someone he could properly rely on.

Panthro stood up, samoflange in paw. Even if he did something like tuck her hair back in place, which she might very well not like, he wouldn't know if it was as soft as it looked, not with these blasted arms. He turned away. Her independence reminded him a lot of himself at her age. She'd told him about her family. It had sounded like her father had worked hard to bring his daughters to Thundera, but then she'd lost him, and her sister, too. He remembered what she'd been like in the beginning: skittish, reluctant to get her paws dirty. Helpless. Boy, had that rubbed his fur wrong. A delicate girl like Felline should never have seen the evil that was war.

His scowl deepened. Cripes. When had he become such a softie? He was giving himself a bellyache.

..::~*~::..

"Hold it," I interrupt, shifting so that my chin isn't digging into tree bark. "You don't know that. How could you possibly know what Panthro is thinking? We can't even hear them talking from up here."

"It's an educated guess," Kit says defensively above me.

I roll my eyes. "Sure, Sis."

..::~*~::..

He worked for a few minutes in silence. Then the prolonged squeal of claws on metal made him drop the samoflange. It growled when it hit the ground and he surged to his feet. "What in blazes are you doing?" he exploded.

"Sorry," Felline gasped. She was sitting in a cloud of dirt, wincing as she put a paw to her backside. "I couldn't reach."

She pointed to a secondary panel, ten feet up.

Panthro's eyebrow twitched. Without a word, he scooped her off the ground and settled her on his shoulder as if she was one of his nieces.

She burst out laughing, weightless as a doll. It was almost as if she wasn't even there. "Wow, I've never been this tall! What's the weather like down there?"

"Will you just get to work?" he rumbled, scowling. He curled one metal paw protectively around her shins and squeezed his eyes shut, determinedly not asking himself why he hadn't touched her before now. With paws that couldn't break her so easily.

"Okay, okay. Killjoy." She was still laughing.

Ah, cripes. With something like dismay, he tried to ignore the way her laughter burned him up inside. She was stronger than any of them had given her credit for, and never had she shown fear under his mismatched glare. His scars didn't bother her. She'd built new arms for him. And she laughed as she balanced on his shoulder, caught somewhere between kitten and adult.

Surrounded by kids. Saddled with a pair of lovebirds.

"I got it, thanks," Felline said. "You can let me down now."

With traveling companions like that, he supposed it shouldn't surprise him that he'd started acting like an awkward teenager around her.

He lifted her down carefully, handling her as if she was made of glass. On her feet, she barely reached his elbow.

By Thundera, he'd never expected to fall in love again.

..::~*~::..

"Love? Panthro?" I don't want to think of the general like that. He's a man's man. Like me. I start gagging, and Kit rewards me with a cuff over the ear. "Ow!"

"Quiet!" she orders.

..::~*~::..

She must have seen something in his face. Puzzled, she frowned up at him. "Is something wrong?"

He couldn't seem to unclench his jaw to answer her. No. Yes. Everything was wrong. She was eighteen years old, for crying out loud. And he was . . . well. Too old for her.

She likes the kid, he reminded himself. Why on Third Earth would she choose an old cat like him?

..::~*~::..

"Kit . . ." I say warningly, already knowing where this is headed. We can't actually see Felline anymore. Only the back of Panthro's topknot.

..::~*~::..

They were so good at silence, Felline and Panthro. He didn't have a clue what to say to her.

Concerned, she put a paw against his stomach, closing the distance between them and setting off a chain of internal shocks that made his heart pound dully.

..::~*~::..

"Kit."

Lost in her fantasy, she's not listening to me, paws clasped at her cheek, smiling dreamily. I swear I can see sparkles in her eyes.

..::~*~::..

Tentatively, he hooked the loose strand of hair from behind her neck, letting the shining white strands run over his claw.

"There's somethin' I need to tell you, but I don't know how," he said abruptly, voice gruffer than usual.

Something – a shadow, a memory, grief and pleasure – passed across her eyes. She tilted her head, pressing the side of her face into his palm. "Then maybe you should show me instead," she said quietly.

He couldn't believe his ears. She must know what had happened. Had he been wrong about the kid?

Attraction shimmered between them like summer lightning, keeping their gaze connected. Still, he couldn't think of anything to say.

So he didn't say anything. He bent down and kissed her.

..::~*~::..

"That's it!" I cry. I sit up so fast I dislodge my sister. We glare at each other along the branch. Kissing again! No kissing!

Then something down below catches my eye and I relax, smirking. "Nice try, Sis, but that's not gonna happen," I say.

"Why not?" she demands. She pouts at me. I know I've hurt her feelings, but I really can't stand all this lovey dovey girly junk. I'm going to have nightmares about Panthro trying to kiss everything from the Tank to lizards thanks to her.

"Because I think Lion-O is the one who likes Felline," I say smugly.

"What? He does not," Kit gasps.

I point.

She turns so fast I think she cricks her neck. She massages it angrily, watching as Lion-O appears from inside the ThunderTank and walks up to the others, a paw shyly seeking the back of his red head. Panthro's scowl deepens, but Felline greets the king cheerfully. They stand awfully close together.

"Lion-O loves Cheetara, everybody knows that," Kit scoffs.

Nonchalant, I start licking my claws clean. I'm not so sure about that anymore.

"Anyway, he doesn't like Felline. Panthro does," Kit insists.

The general shoulders in between them, foisting a box of tools upon a startled Lion-O before storming off. Lion-O looks sheepish, but Felline's laughing again. I hadn't known she could laugh so much. She pats his arm and he brightens. When she ducks inside the Tank with a box of her own, he follows her, not watching where he's going because he's too busy watching her.

"You don't want to admit that Lion-O likes her because you like Lion-O," I say accusingly.

Kit's entire body goes rigid, tail stiff as a bottlebrush. A blush colors her face so fast it's as if someone threw red paint at her.

"Ha!" I burst out, holding my middle as the laughter seizes me. "I knew it!"

"N-no I don't!" she protests, but the damage is done. I've got her now.

"WilyKit lo-oves Lion-O," I sing. I scurry headfirst down the tree, singing at the top of my lungs, with my sister in hot pursuit like we're a pair of skirlls. Once on the ground, I break into a four-legged gallop. We're exactly the same height – no matter how fast Kit goes, she can't catch me. "WilyKit lo-oves Lion-O!"

This time, unfortunately, I'm the one not watching where I'm going. I run smack into Cheetara. If she hadn't been glued to Tygra by the lips, I would have knocked her down.

"Hey!" she cries breathlessly.

"WilyKat!" Tygra shouts, furious, holding her up. If he hadn't been, I'm sure his big paws would have latched around my neck.

"Yipe!" I turn tail to escape and end up in my sister's clutches.

We collide and go down, yelling.

"WilyKit lo-oves Lion-O!"

"I do not!"

"WilyKit lo-oves Lion-O!"

"Take! It! Back!" she snarls, grabbing fistfuls of my mane.

"Never!" I snarl right back. I stretch her tail tight between my paws and prepare to bite.

"Take it back!"

"NO!"

"Stuff it, both of you!" Panthro roars. His paws descend on us, nab us by the scruff, and hoist us into the air. He holds us at arm's length while we scratch and hiss at each other.

All the noise brings Lion-O and Felline. They join Cheetara and Tygra, looking both bewildered and amused.

"What is going on?" Felline asks after Kit and I tire ourselves out and hang, panting, in Panthro's grip.

He looks at her, looks down at us, and then heaves an irritated sigh.

"I don't even wanna know," he rumbles.


A/N: ThunderCats 2011 Omake Gekijō Presents: "Matchmakers."

It all started with WAR-Operative suggesting a new fic exchange. She said: [We should do a Valentine's Day one and pair characters up with opposite pairing - like Panthro and Felline].

I said, I'm in.

While writing Cat's Cradle, I intended to create a character for Lion-O to fall in love with. But somehow, I seem to have created someone that Panthro would fall in love with instead. I know it in the strange way all authors know the characters they write about. When no one was looking, the wrong character lost his heart to my OC. I swear that I never intended that to happen (as I recall, having more than one canon character fall for the OC is the height of Mary Sue no-nos), nor did I make any plans to introduce such a thing into the main series. However, the idea would not leave me alone, and WAR handed me the perfect avenue to make my escape. Real life made me overshoot Valentine's Day a bit, but I don't care.

The revelations didn't stop there. While chatting with my good friend Darwin, she unintentionally brought it to my attention that I seem to have a thing for pairing characters with humongous age gaps, and when I realized she was right, I couldn't stop laughing because in real life, I'm not like that at all! Panthro and Felline are perhaps my biggest age leap ever. Needless to say, Darwin was the inspiration for WilyKat's disapproval.

She also came up with the nonsense tools for me. Because WilyKit has no idea what she's talking about.

So, all of you Fellanthro fans (not the least of which is Mooncloudpanther, since she's the one who coined the term), this story is for you.

Reviewer thanks! KelseyAlicia, The Night Whisperer, Heart of the Demons, Mooncloudpanther, lionessa, Jaegermeister97, and Of Sound Mind. Wow, you guys! I didn't expect such a warm and enthusiastic response. Thank you so, so much!

Love, Anne